Our autumn "monsoon season" is in full swing here in East Hawai'i. When the thunderstorms finally passed on Thursday I expected the rain would diminish, but in fact it has increased dramatically and become around-the-clock. Over 15 inches on the month and counting. After listening to the rain all night I knew there was no chance of a useful outing today. I was sore and tired from Saturday's volunteer day, so I slept in until noon and when I finally got up I made the long trek to one of my locations of last resort in foul weather: Mauna Loa Strip Road in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. This is just in the lee of the high ridge that connects windward Mauna Loa to the summit of Kilauea, through Volcano Village. Although I've been to Kipuka Puaulu and Kipuka Ki and the Strip Road many times and exhausted the flora, at least I had a chance of doing some practice bird counting. I should have brought my laser rangefinder for distance estimation practice, but didn't think of it.

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It was solid rain all the way up through Volcano Village. I started to worry that even Kipuka Puaulu would be too rainy for bird counts. Fortunately the rain shadow effect was in action, and the area was only hit by occasional mistings. The wind was gusting in the treetops, with clouds racing overhead and several large branches falling while I was there. Numerous branches and trees were on the ground. One of the most bizzare was a towering canopy 'ohi'a that had fallen - a large rare 'oha wai tree just escaped being crushed or even severly injured by somehow fitting perfectly in the fork of the fallen tree. Perhaps it was a slow fall, because it appeared that the 'ohi'a probably grew at a steep angle to fill an opening in the sapindus canopy a little distance away in that direction.

I did a single loop around the loop trail in Kipuka Puaulu, and walked the length of the road in Kipuka Ki from the lower end, up beyond the upper end, to the cattle guard in the next "kipuka" above. Bird counts were spotty, but pleasingly diverse. In particular, 'apapane were sparse and fairly quiet. One exception was a large flowering 'ohi'a in Kipuka Ki that was a hub of 'apapane activity. 'Oma'o were surprisingly absent or quiet - I only heard 2-3 in each kipuka all afternoon. Kalij pheasant were also more scarce than usual. 'Amakihi were consistently at a very low level of 1-2 per count. There were numerous pockets of 'elepiao. Japanese white-eye were by far the most numerous bird, averaging about 5-6 per count. Red-billed leiothrix were well represented. A handful (normal numbers) of yellow-fronted canary and hwamei were present in Kipuka Puaulu, and just 1-2 house finch. I did not see Foghorn Leghorn in Kipuka Puaulu, but thought I might have heard him in the normal place near the hibiscadelphus grove.

I only made one significant botanical observation today, which was finding a kilioe liana in Kipuka Puaulu that IIRC I had not noticed before. I also noticed a large number of stenogyne rugosa patches in Kipuka Ki, that I might not have noticed before. I can't rememeber any particularly notable flowering or fruiting activity, though there were some wonderful odors wafting about Kipuka Ki. I spent some time inspecting insects trapped on the sticky coatings of papala kepau pods.

station	time	APAP	HAAM	OMAO	ELEP	JAWE	RBLE	KALI	NOCA	HOFI	YEFC	MELT	Notes
Puaulu	1254	1				4			2
Puaulu	1310	3	2			5	1				2
Puaulu	1330	1		1		6		2
Puaulu	1345	1	1		3	5	3	5	1
Puaulu	1410				1	5	3	1	2			1
Puaulu	1432	1	2			7		3	3	1
Puaulu	1450	1				5	1	2	1	1
Puaulu	1507		1			5			1
Ki	1540		2		2	5	1
Ki	1602	1	1	1	8	1
Ki	1618	2	2		2	5		1	2
Ki	1630	12	3			3
Cattleguard	1645	4			2	3	4		1
Ki	1713	4	1	2	2	8
station	time	APAP	HAAM	OMAO	ELEP	JAWE	RBLE	KALI	NOCA	HOFI	YEFC	MELT	Notes